Fell In love With A Girl

Star Trek Deep Space Nine

2022-02-16T13:10:05Z

A long time ago, when I was but a wee teenager, I watched a few episodes of this show on television.

I had watched Star Trek Voyager and some of The Next Generation, but DS9 didn't seem to be my cup of tea -- Earl Grey or otherwise.

However, a while ago -- probably a little over a year ago -- I started watching all of Star Trek. Started with The Original Series, moved on to The Next Generation. Finished TNG a week or two ago, and have moved on to DS9.

It's still on Netflix here, so before Paramount yanks all of it, I want to get us much seen as I can. So I sincerely hope I can still rewatch Voyager after DS9 and Enterprise after that, and maybe the three films from the "alternate universe" with Chris Pine as Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock.

So... Deep Space Nine... I'm almost halfway season 2 and I haven't turned it off yet. Not all characters are of interest and I find my attention slipping when there's little to no Kira or Dax in an episode. Odo and Quark's relationship is amusing. Bashir makes me roll my eyes a lot. O'Brien is fun and Sisko has the habit of annoying me at times. I tolerate his existence. To clarify, he has his moments.

But Jadzia Dax and Kira Nerys... now there's a pair I love watching -- together, apart, being epic people, getting stuff done, ... They work quite well together. =D

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Watching The Witcher on Netflix...**

2022-02-10T23:10:11Z

Yennefer Of Vengerberg.

...that's it.

That's the post.

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Booster baby!!

2022-01-12T17:11:19Z

Got my booster shot today. I was #TeamPfizer but after today that's no longer true. My booster was from the Moderna variety.

Friend of mine got hers last week and she already advised to drink a lot and to take a painkiller before going to bed. I started drinking a lot but I'm not in the habit of doing the liter a day thing so it's a bit of a struggle with my water bottle at the moment. I think I'm at a little over half a liter at the moment.

She was feeling tired the next day so I already warned my colleagues and my teamlead that I might be absent tomorrow, depends on how the next few hours evolve. My arm is definitely going to hurt, which it has done the two times before, and when I got my Tetanus shot in april last year.

The vaccination centre was a lot more welcoming too. Less background noises, which as an autist I can only applaud. There were teddybears and superheroes on the walls, and a playground in the waiting area... for the all the kids that are coming in for their vaccination. I absolutely loved it.

****

Then on the less than exciting news side, my teamlead organized a workshop on friday (a month or 2 ago already, when omicron wasn't a problem yet) which is in person. I thought it would be delayed because of the high infectionrates but nope... turns out it will go ahead as planned, 8 of us, among whom there are 2 unvaccinated, in a big room (or so I've been told). It's a workshop around artificial intelligence so it's hard to be not excited about it going forward... but omicron dammit.

One thing's for sure, I'm masking up with FFP2 and I'm driving back home over lunch. I'm not going to stick around the office the rest of the day. I already spend my 1-day-a-week at the office this week. Not making it 2.

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Books: 2022 Goodreads reading challenge

2022-01-03T23:05:06Z

I managed to read 30 books in 2021.

This year's goal starts at 12 books, same as 2021. If it looks like I can do more, I'll up the goal.

Mind you, I'm currently reading 10 books and 1 magazine, and when one is finished I start on another so I'm always reading around 10 books at a time.

So, my current list of 10 books:

1. Insurrection by Robyn Young --> The epic story of Robert The Bruce (paperback -- English)
2. Alexander The Great by Lucius Flavius Arrianus --> Chronicles the Alexander's travels into Persia and India (paperback -- Dutch)
3. The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo --> a murder myster (paperback -- English)
4. Trick Of The Light by Rob Thurman --> it has angels and demons (paperback -- English)
5. Blood Of The Fold by Terry Goodkind --> Book 3 in the Sword of Truth series (e-book -- English)
6. Mystery Of The Chinese Ring by Andy Adams --> Book 2 in the Biff Brewster series (e-book -- English)
7. The Lost Chapters Of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams --> self-explanatory (e-book -- English)
8. The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie --> first book in The First Law series (e-book -- English)
9. Mornings In Jenin by Susan Abulhawa --> "A heart-wrenching, powerfully written novel that could do for Palestine what The Kite Runner did for Afghanistan." (and heart-wrenching it is) (e-book -- Engish)
10. A Betrayal In Winter by Daniel Abraham --> second book in The Long Quartet series (e-book -- English)

And 1 magazine: National Geographic Magazine of May 2019.
Yes, I'm very far behind with those, hence why I am not going to renew my subscription again.

First book I finished this year (started it last year though) was Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond (paperback -- Dutch translation).

I'm always open to suggestions regarding books, and genre doesn't matter really. As you can see from the above list I'm open to anything.

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Happy new year!

2022-01-01T23:43:06Z

Happy new year to all of you!

I don't know about you but I'm going to tiptoe into 2022, walk with caution and hope it's a better year than the one we just left behind.

Omicron infections are on the rise. I have yet to receive my boostershot -- scheduled for the 12th of January. I'll be doing a Pfizer/Moderna crossover -- vaccinated with Pfizer and boosted with Moderna.

I won't do new year's resolutions -- they're just going to end up out the window anyway -- but I do want to try and be more active again. Share more of my interests and stuff.

We'll see.

In the meantime... stay healthy! Stay safe!!

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I GOT JABBED!!!

2021-06-17T21:33:17Z

YESSSS!!!

Today was V-day!!

At 12:53pm, I received my first vaccine shot -- #TeamPfizer.

I felt like doing a happy dance and I think the lady in the waiting area could tell as much. =D

The vaccination center was very well organized, except that there was too much noise. It's an industrial warehouse where, until a few years ago, they auctioned vegetables. Such warehouses have high ceilings and noise isn't contained in one area but travels across the entire space.

A lot of people together means a lot of voices and my brain will register that as white noise, kinda like when you're looking for a radio station and you almost have the right channel but static is still interfering. So, I did have a hard time understanding the volunteers, and usually I count on my ability to read lips but with facemasks that's also out of the question.

I took my earbuds with me so while I did the 15 minute wait, I listened to the ocean and read my National Geographic Magazine.

Apart from the noise, it was a pleasant experience. :D

Now begins the countdown to my second shot in July, the 22nd.

My sister's first shot is next week so we're close together and will both be considered fully vaccinated around the middle of August.

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IT'S HERE!! IT'S HERE!! =D

2021-06-05T10:08:47Z

Received my invitation in my e-box today... #TeamPfizer

My scheduled appointment is set for thursday 17/06 for the first shot, and the second will be on the 22/O7.

I'm so, so, so happy!! And excited and relieved... waited so long, like a million corona years.

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Mass Effect: Andromeda

2021-04-07T21:07:21Z

So, I'm really enjoying playing this game.

I play as Scott Ryder, and so today Scott is talking to SAM about humor and asks the AI to tell a joke, so SAM says, "A neutron walks into a bar and asks for a drink. 'How much is it?', it asks the bartender. 'For you, no charge.'".

I'm laughing and Scott says, "You keep working on that humor.", and I'm sitting in the couch, "Oh come on, that was funny." -- before I realize I'm talking to a fictional character in a fictional game.

I also argue with Cortana while playing as Masterchief in Halo by the way.

Anywho... I'm probably late to the ME game but ah well...

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Madam Vice President Kamala Harris

2021-01-20T19:20:22Z

I'm not even an American but I'm absolutely buzzing today.

Obviously watched the inauguration. Was still technically working but turned up the stream and put my availability status on "Do not disturb -- inauguration President Biden & Vice-President Harris". =D

A WOMAN OF INDIAN-AMERICAN DECENT IS VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE USA!!!

Also, Biden's inaugural address -- such a brilliant speech.

AND OH MY GODDESS... that National Youth Poetry Laureate ... that was EPIC!!

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I did a grown-up thing...

2020-06-30T23:26:14Z

...but more on that later in the week -- say thursday around noon-ish or later in the day.

Anywho, what's up?

Don't say "the sky"... =P ...I already know that and over here it's covered in clouds and rain coming down. Which is a good thing, mind you, cause our water supply was running a little on the low side. Also want to test my new windshield's coating tomorrow. The repairman said the droplets would roll right off -- seeing is believing. (and by repairman I literally mean repairman as my car's windshield was cracked, a small stone fragment got catapulted right into it a week or two before our lockdown started)

By the way... amused when I'm playing Pokémon Go it emulates the weather in real life.
Also, while playing PG, there are certain remarks which really do sound better in your head than spoken out loud proclaiming, "I have no balls." -- my colleague, whom I got to playing, exclaimed that very sentence very loudly in the street, and yes, there were a few odd looks coming her way and I just laughed.

Anyways... I should go to sleep... I have to go into the office tomorrow. I'd rather work from home but we have to spend a minimum of 2 days at the office so wednesdays and fridays I venture out into the world.

Goodnight and see ya thursday for my grown-up thing... (whichever way it turns positive or negatively disappointing)

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Just reading a few books...

2020-05-27T21:16:18Z

... one chapter at a time...

My current list:

( Once upon a time... )

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Vacation-mode = ON

2020-05-15T11:38:36Z

Well, sort of anyway since we still are locked down in country. Venturing outside of our borders is still a no-no.

However, this also means that the vacation I was supposed to be on next week, was cancelled before it even took shape. Luckily we hadn't booked anything yet, but chances were relatively high we were going to visit Malta.

Anyway... after I found out that the zoo's are only allowing people who have a yearly membership to visit until the end of May, and I got really mad and disappointed, I decided not to let it deter from my week off. I'll just have the best virtual vacation I can plan for.

A friend of mine had to cancel her trip to Toronto so she documented her virtual vacation and what she really did that day by ways of a creative diary (she's an artist). I can do that too but with images and text-based comments.

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I am confined to quarters...

2020-03-16T22:13:54Z

...with a cold...

...considering the relation it has to that other bug going around, everyone running around with a cold or the flu is confined to quarters all the same.

I'm sneezing my head off. My nose is stuffed. I can't smell a thing. There's the occasional coughing but generally I'm just running through our stockpile of Kleenex. =S

I work from home all week, or don't work at all since my sick leave states I shouldn't actually have to work, but my Doctor said if I felt okay enough that I could. I will or I'll go stir crazy otherwise. Besides, my sister is working from home too so there's the two us, sharing an improvised "office space", listening to the top 500 of the Nineties -- oh, what lovely music we had back in the day. :D No really, I'm loving it! :D

Also, I'm watching Star Trek the original series, or as I generally like to call it --> The Adventures of Captain "I have the emotional range of a teaspoon" Kirk and his Trusted Sidekick, Mr. Spock

Braincells are dying by the dozens going through these episodes. Oye vey!

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Goodreads

2020-02-09T15:03:55Z

I'm on Goodreads.com --> Finn

12 books in my reading challenge for 2020. That's one book a month.
I read 22 books in 2019 -- which I also set to 12 books.

Currently reading 10 9 books~~, 1 graphic novel, 1 children's booklet~~ and 1 e-book:

Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis -- J.K. Rowling (translation by Peter Needham)
~~The Doctor Who Stories~~ -- FINISHED 09/02/2020
Blood of Tyrants (Temeraire book 8) -- Naomi Novik
The Ancient Near East c. 3000 - 330 BC, volume I -- Amélie Kuhrt
Doctor Who: Demontage -- Justin Richards
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Angel Chronicles, volume 3 -- Nancy Holder
Stalking the Dragon -- Mike Resnick
End of the Century -- Chris Roberson
CSI: NY: Deluge -- Stuart M. Kaminsky
Angels and Demons -- Dan Brown
~~Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor, volume 1 - A New Beginning -- Jody Houser~~ -- FINISHED 17/02/2020
~~Dr. Thirteen -- Adam Hargreaves~~ -- FINISHED 17/02/2020
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

They are in various stages of progress.

If you want to follow me on goodreads, you're welcome to do so. :)

Edit
I normally add a new book to the list whenever one is finished, but I just decided to finish this list first before adding a new one -- let's see how long I can manage before adding a new one to the list.

Edit 2
Two more finished, though to be fair it's a comic and a children's booklet.

Edit 3
I forgot to add a book, namely number 13 on the list. It's on my Kindle app on my phone. It's my read-in-line-for-something-somewhere-book.

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January 31, 2020 -- what a shitty day...

2020-02-01T18:31:07Z

To all of my British friends who had no desire to leave the European Union... always welcome over here!

Those who voted leave -- tell me again why we are connected? Or how the EU mistreated you in any way? What happened that "leave" sounded like a good option?

***//***

To all of my American friends, in between all the brexit posts I saw that #MoscowMitch pulled off the sham impeachment trial by not allowing witnesses and evidence to be put forward. The Republicans choosing power over the constitution seems to be a regular thing now.

I suggest you get busy and vote those clowns into oblivion, and by the gods and everything that's holy... get that orange clown out of the White House -- for goddess' sake, the embarrasment is becoming taxing. Plenty candidates on both sides of the aisle who are far more qualified for the job.

***//***

In the meantime... Belgium still has no federal government, and it's been 250 days since the elections. The record of forming a government is at 541 days, and yes, we are in fact mentioned in the Guinness World Record Book with that dubious title. =P

Mind you, while there is currently no federal government, we do have our Flemish one, the one down south for the Walloon half and there's the German one in the east of the country (took that bit of land from Germany after WWII)... Oh, and I almost forgot, Brussels has one too.

We're a federal Kingdom -- it's complicated. =P

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Python coding [update]

2020-01-18T10:40:14Z

It was showtime this morning.

We showed our classmates our escape game, and while mine isn't entirely working as it should I did pass my course. At least, the teacher did welcome me back to part 2 of the course. =D

The game still needs work and I intend to finish and upgrade it to the best version it can be. Maybe even build a GUI for it later in the year.

But for now... I'm just happy I passed. =D

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Python coding

2020-01-15T23:59:14Z

I started the Python coding course in September.

Always wanted to try it, so when it was offered in the evening-classes curriculum, I jumped right in and enrolled (cause last year I was too late to do so).

On top of getting in, I was excited to learn that our company's chatbot makes use of some python coding so I could actually make use of it at work too. My colleagues told me to let the company pay for the course but I didn't want to do that because it creates a certain expectation and I didn't want that pressure.

I was going to satisfy an interest that I had, and on the off chance that it wasn't gonna work out, I didn't want the stress of having to finish because they expect me to do so.

Anywho, I'm coming up on the end of the first semester, which officially ends on the 25th of January, and our final project should be a mini escape room game. There are a few things that have to be in there, but theme and riddles can be anything we want (mine is Star Wars themed).

We don't have exams or tests. 70% of scoring goes to exercises throughout the semester (I'm approx. 10 exercises short of having them all finished), and 30% goes to the final project so I should be alright.

Sidenote: the running joke on the exercises, at my expense, is that they are all math problems and I just don't understand those very well. Therefore, one of the comments my teacher made while she was looking them over was that I definitely had coding logic, but I utterly lack every math-logic in existence. *shrug* I know. =P

I wasn't going to enroll in the next half of the course, which goes more in depth, unless I was able to make the escape room game work at least halfway decent. I thought even that goal was unreachable because I had the foggiest how to start... Turns out, it wasn't that hard to reach and I'm about to sacrifice some more saturday morning ly-ins to learn more coding. =P

Looking forward to learning how to code a simple game like pong. =D
I'll have no doubt, I'll be cursing the code because the escape room is literally written one line at the time, and it's like 5 lines written, 3 lines back cause something is horribly wrong. =P Debugging -- I'm getting quite good at it these days.

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Hello 2020!

2020-01-02T23:25:36Z

First and foremost, I'd like to wish everyone still reading this the best of luck in the new year. May it bring you joy and happiness in all that you do.

I made new year's resolutions last year of which I probably didn't keep up with. I did read a lot more, and I started exercising more, by which I mean I took up rope-skipping again.

Some 25 years ago, I was a competition level skipper but those days are long gone. Although, I still got the moves.
It was a colleague of mine (with whom I've become quite good friends) who pushed me to find a sport I would love to do (and chess didn't count). She kept pushing until I finally wanted her to stop nagging so I joined a local rope-skipping group. She got her way. :p

There's maybe one resolution I would like to make and that would be that I would try to post here again. I've been absent, I know (don't tell me), and I thought it had maybe been too long to come back and say "Hey, still alive!". However, someone recently told me it's never too late to come back in and go "Hey guys, I'm still alive. How are you?"

So here I am... again...

And I will try to post at least once a week -- even if it's just to say "hi".

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Shoot... how did I miss that? (I didn't)

2019-05-21T21:16:02Z

I briefly mentioned in my previous post -- and can I just say that my Jodie as the Doctor icon keeps distracting me -- that I hadn't gotten around to posting my 2018 fandom_stocking fanfics yet.

Turns out I missed a couple and haven't actually written them yet... -- scratch that -- ... I was looking at the wrong list. I have written them all and posted all, bar one. I switched 3 people's gifts from fanfic to jigsaw puzzles and a wallpaper so I'm only 1 fic short at the moment.

So... anyone up to beta a rewrite of a fanfic that was beta'd but requires a second opinion now that I've pretty much rewritten the entire second half of the 2-page fic?

It's Stargate Atlantis. Kate/Teyla friendship or implied or relationship (whichever carries your fancy). It's Doctor Who-themed but no knowledge of the show required (you can pretend to be Teyla in this case who also can't make heads or tails to Kate's Whovian words).

'K thanks!

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Tiptoes in...

2019-05-21T10:33:23Z

Hello there...

It's been a while since I've been around. I sorta dropped off the map, I guess, not that I planned to do that obviously but I needed some time to put the world, my world, back on the tracks of life.

I found my muse again.

Never got around to fixing my fandomstocking fanfics I wrote so they haven't been posted yet, but working on that now as I write this.

Went on vacation to Lanzarote a couple weeks ago -- which is basically an island on top of a dozen dorment volcanoes. Looks like Mars basically.

Going to Paris this weekend with two of my colleagues -- a bit nervous about it in fact.

And off to London a month from now to see the musical Wicked with my sister and a friend, celebrating the friend's graduation from nursing school.

Anyway... hello again!

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LOOK AT MY NEW ICON(s)

2019-01-19T23:31:39Z

Fandom stockings went live as I mentioned earlier... and OH MY GODDESS, I love the presents people dropped in my stocking.

There's Forever Knight fic (Fleur centric -- grin), more icons than I can dream of (points to new default icon) and images of cats and wolves, and axylotls which are going to distract the hell out of me at work when I put them in my wallpaper mix.

*does happy dance*

If you want to check out the gifts in my stocking -- go here!

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Fandom stocking progress (update)

2019-01-19T20:02:48Z

Stockings went live and I missed the deadline for filling ... again.

I have 7 fics left, 6 which are off to a beta and will hopefully be posted in the coming days. For now those fillings will be placeholders with things to come.

But I have one ficlet that requires a beta who is familiar with the Legend of the Seeker tv series. Anyone on my feed who would be willing to do a quick beta of a PG Cara/Kahlan ficlet, barely a page long?

Beta found!

And besides that... I'm done. :D
All other stockings have been filled, including the one whose owner deleted all her accounts and probably forgot they had a stocking request.

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Fandom stocking progress

2019-01-17T01:11:43Z

With 3 days until the grand reveal... I'm down to 49 stockings left to fill.

Unfortunately, the fanfic stockings will be delayed because I won't be able to finish all the drabbles I want to write, on time, or have them beta'd. But the rest should be okay. They'll just have to wait a little longer.

The deadline is looming though. =P

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Fandom stocking progress

2019-01-08T01:48:15Z

...140 more to go...

That's more or less at the halfway point. And I have two weeks left to fill them all.
This should be doable, right?

Right?

Yeah, not worried... yet...

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Happy 2019! And resolution(s)...

2019-01-02T17:22:41Z

First and foremost, good wishes to all of my friends and anyone else reading this.

New year has started! It'll hopefully be a good one for everyone.

Anyone made any resolutions?
According to a study, if you don't start within the first 6 days of making them, you won't start at all.

I made 5 resolutions:

1) read a book a month, so that should total to 12 books this year
This should, in theory, be doable.

2) do more hiking
I really want to get back into hiking like I used to do a couple of years ago, so that any of my next trips could be another walking holiday in the UK -- any of the Mickledore Walking ones are fine by me, including the one I already did, Hadrian's Wall Walk.

3) play more boardgames
There are a few that I have that I simply haven't had the chance to try yet. And a couple that I really would like to learn how to play.

4) ride my bike more often
My bike got stolen over the summer but my downstairs neighbor had one their son wasn't using anyway so they sold me the bike for 50 euro (it's worth way more than 50 though I doubt they realized that -- good for me). I had this crazy of thought of taking it around the ringway of Leuven, and basically circle the entire city (it's not as big as I'm making it sound). I'd be dead the first few times but it would be a good work-out, especially since I'm not really into all that fitness stuff, except rowing -- that I like.

5) enjoy life more, and worry less
I don't know how I'll go about this one, but I need to let go of a few things to get there, I think. Especially with regards to work and my current teamlead. I'm gonna have to find a way I can cope with her obvious adversity for me, or fight a battle I probably can't win and could damage my further career within the company in the process.

And another one that I don't know if I can keep... but I should post more here. Like make a conscious effort to stay up-to-date with all of you, and you know, drop in once in a while. I'll do my best though.

Anyhoodle, I should get started on the fandom stockings... I'm running behind already. =P

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